Samsung plays down April Galaxy S III launch

Samsung appears to be playing down claims that its new Galaxy S III smartphone will be in the shops in April.

ZDNet Korea claimed to have confirmed the April launch with Samsung's advertising agency. But when questioned further Samsung said that the successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.

This does not mean that Samsung is not launching the phone in April it is just it appears to be managing expectations. Samsung has a media event planned for March 22 in Paris where it was expected to be launched. Features for the Galaxy S III have not been officially released but it seems likely to feature a 1.5ghz quad-core processor, a 4.8-inch 1080p resolution display, 2GB RAM, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera. BGR said the handset would run Android 4.0.